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Lancaster Fire Department will continue semi-annual fire hydrant testing in the city this month. Opening fire hydrants can sometimes cause temporary discoloration of water in nearby homes.

The discoloration is not harmful and will clear up by running the water for a few minutes. Be aware and drive slowly through testing areas as streets may be wet, and be aware of fire department personnel in the area.

The Lancaster County office of the Cass Elias McCarter Guardianship ad Litem (GAL) Program is seeking volunteers to act as advocates for abused and neglected children. Free training to become a GAL volunteer starts May 23. For details, visit gal.sc.gov or call (803) 286-6064.

TOPS meets on Thursdays

Take Off Pounds Sensibly (TOPS) is a nonprofit organization to support weight loss.

Odell Blackmon was Lancaster County’s ultimate people person.
For three decades, he delivered Lance snacks to company break rooms, grocery stores and gas stations all over the county, and at every stop, people were delighted to see him walk in. They called him the Cracker Man, and he brightened everyone’s day.
“Odell was so personable that I don’t think he ever met a stranger,” said the Rev. Otis Lathan, his pastor at Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church. “And if they were, they weren’t strangers very long.”

A Buford Middle School employee was struck by lightning Friday during a field trip in the mountains north of Greenville, and she was airlifted to a burn center in Augusta, Ga.
Kristina Heaton, an instructional assistant at the school, was released from the hospital Sunday and returned to work Monday, but went home because of lingering pain.
“When I touched that cord, it just lit me up,” Heaton said Tuesday. “It just threw me up in the air.”

Two people were shot, one fatally, while riding in a car just north of Kershaw early Thursday afternoon, causing the lockdown of two nearby schools as deputies conducted a manhunt for the shooter.
“Right now, I just don’t want to guess at what happened,” said Lancaster County Sheriff Barry Faile, still supervising the search at press time. “We’re processing everything, trying to piece it all together.”

Buford softball players had to choose between going to their prom and playing in the Upper State Playoffs championship game Friday evening, because the S.C. High School League would not delay their rained-out Thursday game until Saturday.
Parents, players, coaches and administrators were fuming Friday.

Dropping a set of keys while running from a police officer on May 10 proved costly for a Lancaster man when $7,500 worth of drugs, a firearm and cash were found inside his car when the key-fob alarm was activated.

The woman who was wounded in last Thursday's fatal Kershaw shooting has been identified and arrested.

Jody Linn Holt, 30, of Kershaw, was arrested at the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office Thursday and has been charged with possession with intent to distribute marijuana and unlawful neglect of a child.

Holt and Vincent Barry Lambert Jr. were both shot on Pine Ridge Drive in Kershaw May 10 with their 4-year-old son in the backseat. Holt was severely injured, and Lambert did not survive. The child was unhurt.

After a second exhaustive manhunt in five days, authorities captured a Lancaster teen running across the Chick-fil-A parking lot at 1:30 a.m. Tuesday and charged him in last week’s Kershaw double shooting.
Dorian Tyrese Clyburn, 16, was charged with murder in the death of Vincent Barry Lambert Jr., who was riding in a car on Pine Ridge Drive last Thursday when he and the female driver were shot. A 4-year-old in the backseat was unhurt.